2009 iMac 27" i7 TDM with FW800?

[California]

I am helping someone upgrade their OEM 2009 27" iMac with original HDD and 4GBs of ram.

I sent them Apple branded 1333mhz ram to bring total up to 12gbs. Is there any problem with using faster ram in these older iMacs?

I also want them to have the ability to use Target Disk Mode with Firewire 800 with a MacBook pro non-retina running High Sierra.

I see most posts about this issue are using MDP mini display port cables for Target Disk Mode, rather than firewire?

I've only ever used Firewire for TDM.

Will the iMac boot and recognize the FW800 cable for TDM?

Thanks for any help

 

[barbu]

FireWire works great with target disk mode. Faster ram should be fine as long as it otherwise matches ie form factor and voltage. Don’t forget to add an SSD to make it really sing.

 

[California]

FireWire works great with target disk mode. Faster ram should be fine as long as it otherwise matches ie form factor and voltage. Don’t forget to add an SSD to make it really sing.

My friend has no idea how to change out that original HDD. It's 12 years old and probably barely working, thus I wanted to know about TDM... thanks for your answers. Yes, they are DDR3 So Dimms and should fit properly into the remaining two iMac 2009's ram slots. Thanks for your help!

 

[barbu]

It’s a fairly easy upgrade, very affordable, and by far the best bang-for-buck modification you can make.
When you ask about target mode, how do they intend to use that?

 

[California]

It’s a fairly easy upgrade, very affordable, and by far the best bang-for-buck modification you can make.
When you ask about target mode, how do they intend to use that?

You and I know this about upgrading the HDD; my friend has no idea. They are going to TDM via FW and a MBP w SSD.

I wonder if the newer OS High Sierra or Catalina will affect performance in the 2009 iMac? Do you have any idea about that?

 

[Nguyen Duc Hieu]

1. Changing HDD to SSD
Send your friends the below links: Tell them to view them at least 3 times before actually doing it. If they cannot follow the video and replace the HDD themselves, they'd better sell their iMac, or use it as a Display only.

2. RAM:
Send your friend 4 sticks of the same type and brand. He/she'd better remove the stock 1066 RAM sticks.
1333 or 1600 will work, but only at 1333 only.

3. Target disk mode:
a FW cable maybe cost the same as an USB enclosure. They can use the USB enclosure to boot the iMac or transfer data etc,... after replacing it with an SSD to run the iMac.

4. Target Display Mode: the iMac 27" 2009 can be used as an external display for the Macbook. MiniDisplay Cable/adapter is used for this purpose.

5. OS:
High Sierra will run smoothly on iMac late 2009, as it is natively supported.
More recent OS are not officially supported and need Hackintosh method to install.

 

[California]

The ram has already been sent. It is dual sticks of the same brand, Apple OEM ram 4gb x 2, but they are 1333 ddr3 not 1067mhz ram. She has the original 2gbs x 2 Apple OEM ram with two open slots. It's fine if the ram speed clocks down to 1067, at least there is 12gbs of ram in there.

The FW cable has already been sent. I thought if she TDM boots the MacBook Pro, it will show up as a boot drive on her iMac and can be used to boot the iMac. I have no idea how to use MiniDisplayport in TDM as I have never done it; though she may have a MDP adapter.

Do you foresee problems booting off the MacBook Pro hard drive to the iMac with firewire?

Thanks for letting me know about High Sierra on the 2009 iMac.

My friend is not computer savvy at all, no chance to replace the iMac hard drive herself.